sNiche - Expanding Neo-Chessonian coexistence theory towards a stochastic theory for species rich communities
First meeting: 18.-20.01.2016
PI:
Thorsten Wiegand;
Stan Harpole
iDiv members:
Thorsten Wiegand
Stan Harpole
Jonathan Chase
Karin Frank
Andreas Huth
Project summary:
The high species richness of communities such as tropical forests has challenged coexistence theory for decades. We synthesize recent coexistence theories by focussing on the role of stochasticity in promoting biodiversity. Because of variability in the biotic neighbourhood of individuals, the interactions between species may in a sense become “diluted” and less predictable and therefore prevent particular species from outcompeting others. We test the new stochastic coexistence theory using spatial analysis of forest plots and by conducting fully controlled biodiversity simulation experiments.
Participants:
Thorsten Wiegand; Stan Harpole; Felix May; Sebastian Lehmann; Jonathan Chase; Tiffany Knight; Andreas Huth; Karin Frank; Fangliang He; Margie Mayfield; Janneke Hille-Ris Lambers; Karen Abbott; Aubrie James; Lauren Sullivan; Xugao Wang; I-Fang Sun
Second meeting: 06.-08.06.2016
PI:
Thorsten Wiegand
Stan Harpole
Participants:
Karen Abbott; Jonathan Chase; Karin Frank; Stan Harpole; Janneke Hille Ris Lambers; Nathan Kraft; Andreas Huth; Stefan Kupers; Grigoris Kylafis; Sebastian Lehmann; Felix May; Margaret Mayfield; Ranjan Muthukrishnan; Juliano Sarmento Cabral; Sean Satterlee; Lauren Shoemaker; Lauren Sullivan; I Fang Sun; Franziska Taubert; Xugao Wang; Thorsten Wiegand
Writing retreat in Cleveland, Ohio, USA: 29.01.-02.02.2017
Participants
Karen Abbott; Lauren Shoemaker; Lauren Sullivan
Publications:
Shoemaker, L.G., Sullivan, L.L., Donohue, I., Cabral, J.S., Williams, R.J., Mayfield, M.M., Chase, J.M., Chu, C., Harpole, W.S., Huth, A., HilleRisLambers, J., James, A.R.M., Kraft, N.J.B., May, F., Muthukrishnan, R., Satterlee, S., Taubert, F., Wang, X., Wiegand, T., Yang, Q. & Abbott, K.C. (2019) Integrating the underlying structure of stochasticity into community ecology. Ecology, (online early) https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.2922
Shoemaker, L et al. (2020) Integrating the underlying structure of stochasticity into community ecology. Ecology 101( 2):e02922. see here
Wiegand, T., Wang, X., Anderson-Teixeira, K.J. et al. (2021) Consequences of spatial patterns for coexistence in species-rich plant communities. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 965–973. see here
